Firefighters reject contract concessions, police sent layoff notices

A contract dispute between Flint's mayor and the city's public safety unions escalated Tuesday.

Tuesday, the city of Flint sent layoff notices to 20 police officers. The city and the police unions have not been able to agree on major contract concessions to help reduce a projected budget deficit.

Also on Tuesday, Flint firefighters rejected a proposal to slash their current contract by nearly 10 percent. Union president Raul Garcia says Flint firefighters were upset that agreeing the concessions would not protect them from future layoffs.

"The biggest complaint I hear from the membership is if they are not willing to make a gurantee than why are we even doing this," Garcia says.

Flint mayor Dayne Walling says the city couldn?t take layoffs off the table with the firefighters. He says now the city will have to look at other parts of the fire department budget.